Sam
Sam was an astronaut who became stranded in space after the destruction of his mothership. He spent his last days aboard a training capsule with the on-board computer, Pod. Biography Sam hailed from London, England, where he lived with his mother and his partner, Jenny, before joining NASA. By this point in human history, a fleet of spaceships orbited the Earth, and on a fateful day, Sam launched from Houston aboard his mothership and joined up with the fleet. He recalled looking back at the Earth, being able to pick out notable features such as a rainstorm over the Atlantic, and the land mass of the United States of America. Aboard the mothership, Sam conducted a number of training exercises aboard one of the capsules, and got to know the on-board computer, Pod. During one such training exercise, the mothership suffered a cascade power failure in the starboard fusion coils, causing fail-safes to eject all training capsules into space. Sam was knocked unconscious during the tumult, and had no knowledge of the accident. When he came to, he queried Pod until he found out the truth, and watched a recording showing the destruction of the mothership. Refusing to give into despair, Sam briefly entertained the hope that other capsules might have survived the explosion, though none were in evidence on the ship's scanners. Coming to terms with his predicament was difficult for Sam, especially when he learned that both his rations and oxygen supplies were too low to make the twenty million, six thousand, four hundred and eighty-three-point-four mile journey back to Earth. Sam decided to send a message back to his family, with few other options left, and with no guarantee the message would even reach home. He delivered a heartfelt speech, lamenting being separated from his mother and Jenny, but recalling fond memories of his first day in space. Unable to continue, Sam instead set to work on trying to reroute the capsule's systems to buy himself more time. However, Pod had other notions, wanting to keep Sam from damaging himself, and put him to sleep for over seven hours. Upon waking for the second time aboard the drifting capsule, Sam uncovered Pod's actions, though understood the computer had his best interests in mind. He apologised for shouting, and finished his message, telling his family he loved them. He watched as Pod ejected the black box, and resigned himself to his fate, being unable to properly communicate how he was feeling to the inquisitive Pod. His message eventually made it back to Earth, having crash-landed in a remote area of countryside and repeating a corrupted but still legible version of Sam's message. The astronaut's ultimate fate remains unknown, though he expressed hope that he would find a wormhole or other space anomoly that might deliver him to a different time and place. Personality and traits Sam was a dedicated and driven individual, and exhausted many possible methods of escape while stranded aboard his capsule. He was prone to bursts of anger, though quickly calmed, and was forgiving of Pod's attempts to assist him. Sam considered himself something of a nerd, having considered space to be "the final frontier"; and during his conversations with Pod he made several cultural references to Earth's past, including Disembodio, HAL-9000, the Tin Man and the speaking clock. He regretted being away from his family, and bade them a heartfelt farewell via a pre-recorded message aboard the capsule. Behind the scenes Sam was portrayed by Tom Menary in Capsule. Appearances *''Capsule'' Category:Protagonists Category:Characters portrayed by Tom Menary Category:Capsule characters